Disappointed that Tony Nicklinson has lost his high court case. Met his daughter a few months ago, hugely impressed by her courage.

Tony Nicklinson has been paralyzed from the neck down since a major stroke in 2005. Now the 58-year-old Englishman has become a household name in his home country after losing a High Court case to allow doctors to help end his life. The hashtag #tonynicklinson trended across Britain on Thursday as news spread of the court decision. And the online community is rallying to his support.

Nicklinson, who joined Twitter in June, tweeted his response to the verdict to his tens of thousands of followers:

Nicklinson’s wife Jane gave an interview at her husband side, where she spoke of what she called the “one-sided” nature of the decision, and made reference to an online petition she launched on Thursday appealing for a change in the law to allow her husband to die. The petition amassed over 5,000 signatures within hours of its creation with the number steadily climbing at time of writing:

Politicians too expressed disappoint at the ruling, with the judge stipulating that any change in the law in assisted dying needed to be decided by Parliament. The Shadow Foreign Minister Kerry McCarthy tweeted her reaction:

Nicklinson made online history in June when he became what is believed to be the first man with locked-in syndrome to tweet. His initiation on Twitter was filmed by Channel 4, with Nicklinson the subject of a documentary by the British television channel: